Journal prompt pg50-100 Pick one scene

The scene from The Flowers that I can most relate to would have to be from when Pink tells Sonny that he had been watching him pick weeds that his advice was that he needed a beer (63).  My grandmother used to watch over my sisters and me after school. Most of the time she would let us play but other times she would say that she wanted us to build character and tend to her rose garden. Her back yard was full of roses with thorns and weeds. She would put us to work telling us we would get paid afterwards for which she always seemed to forget. We worked for hours pulling weeds and pruning dead flowers. My father would come to pick us up from work and she how exhausted we were after and take us out for a “beer”, which was more like root beer and junk food. Like Pink he would offer us to take turns driving. It was a big thrill for us because the whole time with our grandmother delegating what work needed to be done to her garden was brutal. My grandmother always had a strong work ethic and wouldn’t rest until she was sure that we knew what manual labor was. From those days on I had a little more appreciation for my dad because he lived with my grandmother and knew first hand how intense she was about working. I think the author’s intention for this passage was to further explain Pink’s character and relationship to Sonny. The only male influence he has is Cloyd, for which Sonny seems not to care for. I think the passage influences the novel because it sets up a relationship between Sonny and Pink that will probably grow stronger through the novel. Though at the same time Pink offers Sonny to drive after he’s been drinking which isn’t the best idea and offers him more beer when they get to Victors Auto Wrecker. It the man behind the cash register of the auto shop to offer him a coke instead of beer saying “you don’t want to be getting too used to no drinking at your age. You don’t let this crazy cat lead you into wrong”(67).  Though I feel like the warning he gave sonny was more playful than being extremely serious. I personally similar to my personal experience because I know how first hand how picking weeds seems like a job that will never end but different in the sense that I feel my grandmother was in a odd way trying to teach us something were as Cloyd was looking for cheap labor. I also this experience was a little different from Sonny’s in the sense that my father gave us root beer not actual beer and was more responsible to not let us think it was ok to be drinking and driving. I think that both experiences are similar in the sense that after dealing with annoying labor there was someone there to feel empathetic and wanting to do something nice.